This Monday I started the last course I need before getting my high-school diploma. I might finally be done. And soon! I have already applied to the university course I want to take, and if I finish in time I should get accepted as long as the number and level of applicants doesn't change dramatically. The prospect of finally starting an adult life feels exciting, even though I'm not super stoked to move away from my friends. I hope this last course goes well, I hope there is no trouble getting my diploma and I hope that I can find a nice new group to play Dnd with when I move.
Flying out to Cusco tomorrow for a 5 day trek to Machu Pichu (I never know how to spell it). We’re going to attempt a no tent, no guide trek of the Salkantay route. I anticipate it will be the hardest trek of my life. Never done a lot of hiking before this trip. But in the past 1.5 months we’ve gone up different size hills about 7 times. Altitude will fuck you up tho. I’m exited for the challenge! Edit: also just got my low income Burning Man ticket approved! I was on the fence of going this year since I blew so much money on travel already. Still have a month long expensive Africa trip next month. But now that I have a cheap ticket... i guess it’s time to work extra hard this whole summer and make bank. The friend I was doing the tours with last summer moved to the UK. So I can technically make double the cash. At the cost of no life for the summer. I’ll take that deal :)
I graduate college in *checks* seven weeks. Holy shit balls. In one week I go to Daytona Beach, FL for gymnastics nationals. In June I officiate my two best friends' wedding. Just heard back from Thread, a organization that connects four residents of Baltimore to a young high school student in Baltimore. The group supports one another. The commitment is ten years. It sounds like a great idea so far, so I'm going through with it. Will do an orientation and get matched with a "family" in a few weeks. I want to plant a proper tree at the corner of my block. Right now there's a sapling serviceberry tree and some rose bushes. The bushes trap trash--I'm in a marginal neighborhood where people don't give a fuck, and I've seen people toss their stuff right then and there. And the serviceberry tree is just the lamest, most stunted sapling I've ever seen. I don't want to ask permission from the city: I wanna buy a London pine that'll grow into something massive. I think it would look so cool.
Seattle actually has a directory of historically and agriculturally important trees, they call the Heritage Tree Program: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/trees-and-landscaping-program/heritage-tree-program And, because Seattle is good with data, they also make the location of all these trees available in a useful form: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/trees-and-landscaping-program/seattle-tree-inventory-map And I took a subset of that data and put it into Tableau so people could see where the cool Heritage Trees are located (note, this is not my visualization, because I don't want to link my actual name to my Hubski name)" https://public.tableau.com/profile/amanda.pype#!/vizhome/HeritageTreesinSeattle/HeritageTreesinSeattle So trees are a kinda cool think to dig into, in cities.
As much as I see the appeal to take initiative and plant a tree on your own (I personally dream of turning my backyard into a mini meadow), I would really encourage you to talk to the city instead. Cities often work with arborists to determine the best tree for a location, that will work with the soil type, water availability, be appropriately hardy for the environment, etc., but most importantly, won't have a root system that will cause damage to sidewalks, building foundations, etc. Additionally, you might want to look into whether or not your city is a participating member of Tree City USA. If they aren't, maybe you can find a way to help encourage them to join. After all, one tree on a corner is great. A tree on every corner though? That's a thing of beauty.I don't want to ask permission from the city: I wanna buy a sapling that'll grow into something massive. I think it would look so cool.
That's a good point, that there's a plan independent of me. Baltimore is the third-oldest active member of Tree City USA. I spoke with someone from the city's department of natural resources who at one made it seem that it's ok for residents to plant trees if they water them in the beginning. I should make sure though. My mom has a London pine planted in her sidewalk. She lives in the city. It's like 60 feet tall
Los Angeles went through and planted a shit-ton of camphors. They annihilated the sidewalks in 20 years and dripped staining red berries all over everything the entire time. You could literally ski down one slab and halfway up the other because (A) they were slick with crushed camphor berries (B) the edges would literally jut a foot or more up from the next slab over. I used to rescue handicapped guys on scooters all the time. They'd try to make it to the grocery store and they'd be on the sidewalk and then the sidewalk became shit and by the time they realized how fucked they were they'd tried backing up a mobility scooter and failed and high-centered or hung a wheel into traffic. Camphor trees are dope. But they give no fucks about sidewalks. And neither does LA.
How do you know that was a Camphor tree in Totoro? God that movie is special. That's it, gonna watch it next.
I'm building a stilt fortress for my kid in the back yard, I started today. I've got 4 20 foot 4x4 in, they look insanely tall. I'll probably wait until Saturday to frame in the floor so the concrete has time to cure. The city has purposed the closure of our neighborhood pool. It's one five indoor pools in the city, and a lovely facility. The city talks a bunch of jive about how the necessary budget cuts are done with an eye toward equity and serving less advantaged communities. The peninsula I live on has one neighborhood with the 2nd highest minority community, a larger amount of households living in poverty than most the city, including Oregon's largest housing project. It's recently been zoned to drastically increase density. At least three schools hold their competitive swimming practices there. Swimming lessons for kids are always full, you have to register the day classes open if you want to get in. The old folks have water aerobics classes there. I was told that yesterday's class had 58 attendees. Lots of people go there to lap swim. In short it's a shitty thing to do to our often underserved collection of neighborhoods. The park department has a 6 million dollar shortfall and our pool needs 200k in roof maintanince. The city wants to increase the police budget by $12 million this year. I've been spreading the word at my shop and encouraging people to call and write city council. Because my wife works in printing we've been able to donate posters and handbills. My mom who's very active in the League of Women's Voters has been leafleting. I attended the city budget meeting last night and people really came out to let the council know what they thought. I'm pretty sure 2 out of five member of the council would be happy to push half of the proposed police budget increase toward parks and rec. There is a fair chance that two other will come around. I had a few things to say about the homeless community today as well but I'm talked out. Generally I'm really coming around to the idea that we all suffer more when we neglect our least advantaged community members than we realize.
your local rag is full of shoot first, ask questions later bleeding-heart psychopaths. If Portland's hippies can lose their shit over a tortilla truck they can sure as hell work up a lather over a swimming pool closure.
Shitting on two white ladies with a burrito cart is "fun" and hip. Getting the city to shift their budget to save the pool in a part of town many people don't even know exists (ask how the city is laid out and people will tell it's divided into four quadrants, I live in the "5th quadrant",) involves taking hours out of your evening to bitch at city council. People in this part of town love their community. We have our own parade and after parade debauch that people get as excited about as your average Midwest town would get about the second coming of Christ (I mean this, people build floats and polish their classic cars for weeks in preparation, adults jump up and down with Glee a week ahead of time). Old timers on the deep end if the peninsula still pretend it's not incoperated. I heard one if them boast that they hadn't been to "the city" in twenty years. We are going to bitch and bitch and bitch and then bitch some more. There are some very fine, savvy and dogged individuals whom I know from neighborhood association meetings and what not, who's names are spoken like a curse in city hall in the fight. I always donate, bring coffee to events and show up here and there but I'm in this one, shit has me pissed. My kid loves the pool, I love the buildings architecture and it touches the health and well-being of a lot of people I know.
I've met people who've lived here for a decade and not known we are up here. Before Google maps people would call business that I worked at for the address and I'd tell the "number street North Portland." They would say I'm sorry is that NE or NW? I'd say, no, it's in North Portland. They would ask "do you mean NE or NW", I'd repeat. They'd be in a huff "ok (dumb fuck) are you on the east or west side of the river"? I'd say that I guess we are on the East side of the river but we are really North of the river. People would show up and say they lived here for ages and didn't know this part of town existed and they were sorry for being an ass on the phone. The best was when I was told that North Portland didn't exist and I was an idiot or an asshole.
New Mexico's experience is relevant here. And now I really wanna explore North Portland!
there are so many exciting wonderful things happening in my life right now in no particular order: - tickets bought to visit a bunch of countries i've never been before (france, belgium, the netherlands) in may - i'll see my dear friend who's studying abroad in france - i'll meet veen for the first time - i've been able to arrange a couple of performance/visit opportunities at some carillons in the netherlands! which is an amazing privilege and i'm so excited! these instruments are amazing--certainly the oldest instruments i'll have ever played. some of the bells date back to the 15th century! - i've finally figured out what i'll be doing this summer! interning at google should be fun! - i'm running my first half marathon on sunday! - there's another spacex falcon heavy mission launching soon!
I did an internship in a tiny town in WA state one summer and would occasionally hear pealing from the warehouse next door. Wander over one day and they're legit-no-shit carillon makers. I asked what the odds were of ending up next to a carillon shop and they said "well, there are only a couple on the planet..." Fast forward fifteen years and we're selling my wife's oboe to an instrument broker in a different tiny town in WA state. The broker and I keep looking at each other and finally I say "I think I know you from somewhere" and he says "not unless you're in the carillon business." The New Zealand bells in the article? They were making 'em while I was there, I think. The timing is right and I didn't get the sense that they moved a lot of product. Hell of a thing to hear without context.
Dang, is there some obscure world that you haven't at least glimpsed into? I looked into Olympic Carillon a bit since I hadn't heard of them before. Usually when talking about carillons one talks about the foundry that made the bells--which OC doesn't do. But still, the rest of the parts of building a carillon that aren't about casting tons of metal are also extremely important to the overall character of an instrument like that. Things like positioning of the treble bells, for example, which are several orders of magnitude (!) smaller than the largest bass bells, can have a large effect on how the instrument sounds to folks listening on the ground. Before this trip, I'll have played carillons with bells cast by Gillett and Johnston, Taylor, and Paccard. After this trip, I'll be adding Hemony, Eijsbouts, de Haze, and Petit & Fritsen, with the oldest bells being Hemony bells from 1651! edit: Holy shit Olympic Carillon did a renovation of the carillon at Riverside Church in New York City. Riverside's carillon has the heaviest tuned bell in the world as its bourdon (nearly 41,000 lbs)
Let's keep our eye on the ball here: I've talked to people who have built carillons. Twice. You've got a hitlist. ;-) Any chance you could record some of this? 'cuz that would be amazing to hear. Not as amazing as hearing it in person for painfully obvious acoustical reasons but still... Damn - anyone ever done a surround or ambisonic recording of a carillon?
PZM means "Pressure Zone Microphone"(microphone - yeah). Their pattern is "everything" and they only work on a boundary. If you wanted to hear what the carillon sounds like inside the carillon that's the way to go. If you wanted to get the sound inside where you play it, that's a great way to do it. Generally you want to get the sound of the acoustic space where people are hearing the performance. With the massive church organs, the answer is obviously "inside the church." But hey. Take what you can get.
I'll do my best when I'm abroad--those recordings will probably be mediocre. Hopefully soon I have some nice recordings from my home tower. We've got a mic (maybe two, i.e. stereo? not sure) in the belfry, positioned to get higher quality recordings. It'd be dope to do a surround recording. But we have a small budget.
No way, is the carillon at the speelklok museum? Ever since watching Wintergatan's videos I've always wanted to check it out. Have a dope trip!
I move fast. I expect others to move at my pace. It’s largely unrealistic. For the past few months I’ve been thinking I need to come to their side of the fence more. I’m convinced this is wrong. I am more effective when I get those around me to pick up their pace. I have taken a company from idea, to product, to a multi-state (sorry, not Seattle KB), and soon national presence with a 12m+ valuation in 3 years. I’m not slowing down. I loathe the ponderance of inaction. Look out world. thenewgreen is about to step it up a notch. Hope all is well in the hubverse. Love you all!
Had nice quiet at-home dinners three times in the last week with other couples. These were people my wife and I have done Big Things with - like organizing huge in-town raves, establishing Burning Man camps, building enormous multi-story art, and other crazy shenanigans. But we have all kinda been focusing inwardly over the past few years. Home projects. Personal betterment. Cocooning and nesting, really. Over the last few weeks we have been having dinner with just a couple of people. During the week. For a few hours in the evening. Just chilling, chatting, and eating. Catching up. Reminiscing. Enjoying each other's company. It has been lovely, and nurturing, and really perfect. It's nice to have shared history, and to have the particularly insane bits be firmly a part of the past, rather than the future. And tomorrow I am joining what I hope will become a weekly Texas Hold-Em tournament! I've missed playing cards with friends, and this is a circle of friends I haven't been able to spend time with in years. Oh! And yesterday my wife and I planned a trip out to the coast with another couple to go tuna fishing in August...! I haven't been deep sea fishing in a LONG time, and am looking forward to a chance to connect with this couple (we know her well, but never met her husband or their newly-adopted kids), and are quite honored she asked us to be the other couple to join them. Life is pretty nice.
Look at you, living the life! I don’t think one ever “figures it all out” as we naively think adults do as kids. But the way you describe your week seems pretty close :) It’s awesome seeing people enjoying their time on this earth. Maybe I’m wrong, but i feel people prioritize some weird external goal oriented success based happiness vs a simple internal enjoyment oriented life. If that even makes any sense. It’s nice to observe your internet presence here, just living your best life.
Thank you! I'm feeling pretty good about things, in general. I appreciate your comment! And it means even more to me when the comment comes from someone currently scaling Machu Picchu! Are you vlogging this trip? I need to catch up on your adventures...
My birthday is coming up. 26 feels somewhat misspent, given my inability to do many of the things that I would like. I have more hope for 27 because I'm actually planning it out, rather than sitting around for months on end waiting for appointments. It's time to be happening instead of having things happen to me. I have a chronic pain doctor and an additional diagnosis of a 'centralized pain disorder' to open up new resources for me. He's rather disgusted that it took so long for someone to refer me over to a pain doc, given my history. I have been flatly told that I will not be getting a transplant any time soon, so we will work at the problem from this angle. I learned that Al-Anon is a thing discrete* of Alcoholics Anonymous. My pain doc believes that going a few times might benefit me. We'll see. Thanks to tacocat's experience I am leery of twelve-step anything. I've been asked to set some big goals for myself. The question was presented as 'If I could wave a magic wand and make you better, what would you do?' And now apparently we are going to shoot for those things. I'm now technically training for a half marathon. Who knows when I will get there, but that's the goal. An old friend has it in her head that I will be able to do a triathlon with her in a year or two. I've had three physicians in the past 6 months ask me when I was going to med school. I've always believed myself capable of it intellectually, but the physical component has always scared the pants off of me. At present condition, I can't practically be up and physically active for more than an hour or two at a time. I don't even know if I will get in, but I am accreting the information necessary to apply and maximize my chances. I should probably be a bit more afraid/respectful of the MCAT but standardized testing just doesn't phase me. I'm certainly not going to be pursuing a career in hospitalist practice if I am successful. I do think I could be someone's kick-ass family doctor though. I won't bother with the whole 'new year, new me' thing, because I think it's largely untrue in this instance. This is who I've wanted to be and felt unable to pursue it. I might still be unable, but I won't know with certainty without trying.
Good stuph, bad stuff. Late to the party but I'm in a sharing mood. And procrastinating, but more on that later. On the good side: I booked my tickets to go see kleinbl00, blackbootz and ButterflyEffect in May. Which is a few days after demure visits here. Already stoked. Speaking of tickets - I'm gonna see Andrew Bird. It's been a bucket list kinda thing ever since thenewgreen (I think it was you?) raved about his live shows here. May also has Ascension Day, which marks the one year anniversary of the first date with my now-girlfriend. I couldn't be happier about how things are going between us. Part of me was worried that things would be petering out by now, that it would become stale or boring. I feel blessed that it's anything but. Which goes to show that there's always a part of myself worrying, and that that's not a part that I need to listen to all the time. Anyway, tomorrow we're going on a double date with a friend of hers, and on Sunday we're gonna visit her grandpa together. Last week we went to the Efteling with her ex-roommates/bffs, which was a lot of fun. Met up with one of the professors who's coauthoring my academic paper. We went over it together, deciding what to do where. Now I just need to rewrite some parts and get my LaTeX up to snuff and it's close to being submitted. Slow burn, that one, but it's still going. D&D was a lot of fun this week; we did a small campaign with someone else DMing as my regular DM takes some time off to focus on his internship. Everyone made new, fun characters, and I just love how creative and enthusiastic our group is. Our party has a were-raccoon, a judge and I play a deep gnome portal/rift janitor. There's some cool things coming up at work. I have a call this Monday about potentially doing some consulting about / research into electric vehicles for Cape Verde. I'm working on a new data analysis tool for municipal transportation services, and we've already sold it twice on the promise alone. On the bad side: I'm working my ass off and have to deliver an online, interactive tool by Monday. Because that's when it'll be presented at the Dutch Consulate in NYC by my colleagues. Despite us hiring someone local to do the data acquisition, they didn't do their job properly until last week, which meant that I could only start yesterday morning on something that we usually plan at least three weeks for. So here I am, on a Friday fuckin' evening, working on this thing and writing while PostGIS is doing it's thing. Which was also a bitch, because apparently it's 1996 and the default working memory is 4MB, which I only realized this afternoon, after it struggled to run geo-analysis on half a million parcel points and another half million footprints for 19 hours while ArcGIS did the same thing in 2 goddamn minutes. It's also been too busy for our datateam for too long. The good news is that we're finally adding someone to the team specifically to alleviate us, but I wish they would be here already, dammit. On the upside; I've never made more money for the company than in the past month or two, so I have proof that I can be highly profitable if need be. But I'd rather focus on my strenghts, which are decidedly more in product development, which doesn't happen when a dozen or so projects call for my attention. Another thing that's been gnawing at me is that my dad recently fell and broke his arm. In the first week that he started his new job, which after years of temporary gigs seemed to finally be something where he could stay until retirement. He's on a lot of pain meds and doesn't sleep well, and I just have not been able to clear a weekend to travel over there and visit him. Easter will be the next time to visit, but that feels so far away. Ugh. My weight's been going down - I've lost 4 lbs since Christmas literally without trying, and with not a lot of physical exercise too. Hit a new, semi-worrying low today. Any tips to gain weight?
Thoughts: Remember last week I talked about how I kept on thinking about things that I want to share with Pubski, but when the day came around I've forgotten what they were? I realized its because the majority of things I thought were worth sharing were just negative rants and the reason I keep forgetting to share is because, honestly, I've gotten better at letting things go. Don't be confused. I'm not trying to humble brag here, this is legit bragging with pride and all. There is plenty in life that still frustrates me, but I'm so much better at managing to deal with those frustrations now. I've still got a long way to go in the world, but I'm really happy to know and see the distance I've been able to put between the me that is today and the hurt, frustrated, bitter me of yesterday.
ALL HAIL THE FRANKENWATCH I needed something with a "complication" to work on for class. So I managed to stumble across a Universal Geneve Senna 41 case with an Omega Seamaster movement and a generic-ass Otto Frei $12 dial. And I need to buy the parts to make the day function work and then I have a FrankenSenna for $500. I've got $900 worth of gemstones showing up tomorrow. stoked. Also the fucking dishwasher cacked out so I kicked its ass onto the porch and am replacing it with a GE muffukin' tomorrow.
Horology is hilarious. They aren't "gears" they're "wheels" and they aren't "axles" they're "pinions" primarily because we're all forced to use French terminology unless you're from Saxony in which case fuck you it's not a "pilot watch" it's a "flieger" pay double. If you sell your watches for less than $20k, the cutaway models are "skeletons." If you sell your watches for more than $20k, they're "squelettes." At a certain price point, it's a "chronograph monopouissoir rattrapante flyback" (that price point being fully-loaded Prius). At another price point, it's a "split seconds monopusher chronograph" - that price point being BMW 5-series because "monopusher" means "we made the movement ourselves fuck you." Meanwhile a "watchmaker" is someone who fixes watches, an "atelier" is someone who makes watches, but a manufacture is a protected Swiss term which means you make everything under one roof, except certain things, and especially if you're Swiss. We measure everything in mm, except when we don't, when we measure things in ligne, which are 12 to a pouce, which are 12 to a pied du roi, which we don't really care about because the only thing we use is ligne, which is extra hilarious because the Swiss didn't standardize on jack shit until a guy named Florentine Ariosto Jones bailed on the Hamilton Watch Company in Boston to go over to Switzerland because he figured the mountain savages with their cottages could be taught standardized industrial production and they were so mad about his progressive ways that they chased him off to German-speaking Switzerland where he founded IWC and all this happened - let me pause to clear my throat - - 80 years after the introduction of the Metric system. "Wheels within wheels" might be from Ezekiel, but it's from a 17th Century translation, at which point the clockmakers were already getting nutso. When someone wants to say something is "complicated" our basis comes from clocks. English is a whore of a language. http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170111-how-irish-falconry-changed-languageThe mediaeval royal units of length were based on the toise and in particular the toise de l'Écritoire, the distance between the fingertips of the outstretched arms of a man which was introduced in 790 AD by Charlemagne. The toise had 6 pieds (feet) each of 326.6 mm (12.86 in). In 1668 the reference standard was found to have been deformed and it was replaced by the toise du Châtelet which, to accommodate the deformation of the earlier standard, was 11 mm (0.55%) shorter. In 1747 this toise was replaced by a new toise of near-identical length – the Toise du Pérou, custody of which was given to l'Académie des Sciences au Louvre.
Life is grand :) I'm very happy. I'm in my third week of my new job with my old boss who recruited me to this position. I told her in our 10:10 this week that my goal has been to hit it out of the park, and, well...kind of feels like I'm doing it. :) I've also managed to email the president of the bank and tell my manager my goal is to become a VP in the past two weeks, so if it sounds like my enthusiasm and ambition have paired to climb off the charts, that would be an accurate perception. OH and I founded a work book club! We're going to read Strengthfinders 2.0 first. I'm excited. I have goals outside of work too, that I've been working steadily towards. I'm maintaing a 60/40 sober days ratio (generally, only drinking Fridays and Saturdays with a few free days sprinkled in there -- I'm saving them for my VA work trip later this month for April). I continue to move towards my goal weight. After I hit that I'll start weightlifting; work has a subsidized gym and part of the $20/month payment includes 2 personal training sessions a week. HAHAHAH. It's so great I can't help but laugh. This weekend I'm going to a friend's birthday party and I'm bringing a pinata. :D I'm going to Firefly this year, I'm going to my brother's wedding, I'm going to a bachelorette party, I'm having another Hot Ones party, oh and I think I'm going to a horror convention in October. Somewhere in there, I'm going to find a way to visit OftenBen. OH And I'm going to go see the rolling stones whenever my good buddy mick reschedules his tour after he recovers from heart surgery. GROUND. FLOOR. TICKETS, BAYBEEEE I'm 100% debt free. We're renewing our lease this year so I can save disgusting amounts of money (my savings rate is something like 60%, thanks 401(k) and employer match). Since I've got a pretty defined goal of where I want to go in my career -- at minimum, I've committed to going the route of people management -- that also has got me pretty defined on where I'm going to live in the future. I finished "Thinking, Fast and Slow" by Kahnemann (great book btw -- tbh, "Predictable Irrationality" feels kind of like Thinking, Fast and Slow-lite in retrospect) which has a great chapter about base rates. If I want to be a people manager, I need to find a team to manage. Where are the most teams to manage? Well that would be VA of course. So even though I've decided not to move to VA this year, it seems pretty inevitable that's where I'll wind up. Just let me save a full down payment first. I'm really satisfied with the buying ability my new salary from my promotion is going to lend me, although it's highly ambitious to think I'll be able to avoid PMI as a result. But guys, if I don't strike you as highly ambitious already, then maybe we need to get better acquainted, yes? I made a sale on the Etsy store! More importantly, I read that book flac and I think it was applewood were talking about -- the Handmade Craft Business book? It was edifying. It was a little more than I needed in some respects, because it's designed for people who've quit their full time job and want to make a full time go of crafting -- and I'm far too in love with my job to do that -- but I think it's way better to get more information than you need and choose from it what will give you, personally, the most value -- than to not get enough information in the first place. I'm single and while in the long term I continue to know I want a committed relationship, it's honestly very hard for me to even see where a partner would fit into my life right now. I love everything the way it is -- I love my independence, my planning and order, I love basically every choice I'm making. It's hard to envision adding a person to that without feeling limited. I'm very open to it. I'm on two dating apps and even drunkenly paid for 3 months of one -- because I have made a relationship one of my defined long term goals, and as a result feel the need to show progress in attempting to obtain it -- but I really think if/when I meet someone, it's going to be in person. And they are going to have a LOT to handle, let me tell you. :D Let's see. What more could there possibly be to talk about? Life with my sister is great, and I continue to use that relationship to get better about communicating needs and working as a team with another person. About six months ago someone gave me a boot in the butt when they pointed out that I could complain to them about my sister all I wanted, but what I really needed was to communicate with her about my issues. Slowly but surely, I've been working on that. I think, in the long term, that's only going to make me a better partner for whoever I do fall for. I really don't have a single thing to complain about. Wait, that's not true. My cat has loose and smelly poops!!!! But you know what? We're experimenting with food until we get her on the right diet. Speaking of sobriety, the eye contact when you're sober and confident in yourself and have nothing to hide? It gets super intense. Ben can even see it just in photos. Have a great weekend, y'all. With love, and tolerance. For the record: Yeah, I'm ok. In fact, I'd say I'm screamingly more than ok. I just have no tolerance for people who act kind of like jerks, namean?
Lady! Congrats on the sale and everything else! It sounds like you have a lot to look forward to. As for working out, it's awesome that your job will help provide you with a personal trainer. Exercising is a lot easier to do when someone not only gives you advice and knowledge, but also holds you accountable as well. I saw this video today, while puttering around YouTube, and thought you might like it, seeing as how you both make paper and work with denim as a medium.
I've been bleeding a lot within the past couple of weeks. I am going to the doctor again today. Not much activity for that reason.
Baseball season! This is a chart I made of average runs scored by each team vs their opponents: Lower right corner is good, the diagonal line is even, upper left is bad, upper right is high scoring, lower left is low scoring. Average scores from the season openers through Tuesday. It doesn't tell you much that the league standings don't, but I was curious what it would look like. I put last years scores through it too. The spread condensed a lot by the end: The Red Sox beat the Astros in the AL, the Dodgers beat Milwaukee in the NL, and then the Red Sox beat the Dodgers. The Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) were the middlest, and the Orioles were apocalyptically bad. (Remember the quote "everyones gonna win 60 and lose 60, it's the other 42 that matter". you have to do something very good or very wrong to be outside that range, and the orioles managed to go 47-115)
